The Terrible and the Majestic, the Fullness of These Times

Mar 27, 2020

One morning last week was particularly rough. Images on my Facebook feed of children and families playing outside, enjoying their time of social isolation triggered feelings of sadness, desperation, and anger for the children for whom school was their only safe place, their only guaranteed hot meal.

A few minutes later, I checked my Facebook feed and a friend had shared that she was offering a live meditation by donation and that all proceeds would benefit, of all things, a Kids Phone Help Line. Then later that day, a friend whose daughter works for New York State told me about all the people working so hard to get food and support to poor families there.

Sadness and desperation followed by hope, generosity, and goodwill.

What came to my mind was that moment in Chapter 11 of the Bhagavad Gita where Krishna reveals his full form to Arjuna.

Arjuna is awestruck. Krishna blazes with the light of 1,000 suns. He sees beauty beyond belief, all the majesty and magnificence of the world. But he’s also terrified. All the horror, tragedy, suffering, and pain of the world is revealed to him as well.

This is what it’s felt like as I’ve been sitting with the enormity of these times. It’s all being laid bare, the suffering, the pain, and also the beauty, the tenderness, and goodness. I’m feeling it all, as perhaps you are.

There’s no choice now. The blinders are off.

After that penultimate moment in The Bhagavad Gita, Arjuna remains forever changed by being granted the divine vision.

He can’t unsee the fullness, the majesty, and the horror of what he saw.

He vows to remember this experience he’s been granted, the truth of our underlying oneness, the truth of our fundamental interconnectedness and unity.

Today, this is my prayer, may this be the lasting imprint of these times on all of us, may we too use this time to awaken to a new day where we never forget the interconnectedness and the preciousness of all of life.

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